Beschreibung:
This enlightening book is the first book to explain the refractory, uncomfortable, side of Elias's sociological radicalism and is also the first in-depth analysis of Elias's last work The Symbol Theory in the light of selected contemporary developments in archaeology, anthropology and evolutionary theory.
1. Understanding Elias 2. Origins of Elias's Synthesis 3. Norbert Elias and Karl Mannheim 4. The Civilizing Process: The Structure of a Classic 5. Involved Detachment: Knowledge and Self-Knowledge in Elias 6. The Symbol Theory: Secular Humanism as a Research Programme 7. Concluding Remarks: The Fourth Blow to Man's Narcissism?